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Driving desire for auto references: What name

Dad loves cars and made sure each of his daughters’ names has an auto reference. Mom was not thrilled to find out the car connections — but it was too late.

The Williams kids. Ryan Douglas in the back, Morgan Isobel on the left, Hailey Roger in the middle and Shelby Taarna, right.

By Kristin RushowyToronto Star

Fri., Nov. 9, 2012

Naming their daughters was no easy ride for Laura and Keith Williams.

She threw out dozens of suggestions; he ran them down immediately, rhyming them with something disagreeable.

Then, a month before their baby was due, Laura thought of Shelby, a name she’d come across in a novel.

Keith, a self-confessed car nut who loves automotive history and has been “buying and playing” with cars since he was 15, agreed because of Carroll Shelby, a well-known American car designer and race car driver.

He had initially wanted to name their first daughter Taarna, after a character in the early ‘80s animated film Heavy Metal.

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“I thought she was a strong character in the movie, and an important character from my youth,” says Keith. “I told Laura only one to two per cent of people would get it, and she said that was more than we need.

“So I agreed with Shelby and Laura relented on Taarna as a middle name.”

But Laura gave a stern warning for their next child: “No more car names.”

In the last trimester of that pregnancy, she proposed Morgan. Again, it was a name taken from a book she’d read.

“Unbeknownst to her, I knew it was a British car manufacturer. I said ‘I can live with Morgan,’ and I agreed that yes, it would be kind of cool.”

“For the next three months, I kept my mouth shut, but as soon as we brought Morgan Isobel home, I printed up a picture of a 2010 Morgan, a hand-built British car. I showed it to her and she didn’t speak to me for the better part of 12 hours.”

So when daughter number three was on the way, Laura vigorously searched the web to rule out any car connections.

One night after an exhaustive search, she came up with a ‘safe’ name, suggesting Hailey.

Keith agreed on it, and wanted Roger as a middle name — after his father who had passed away.

Then, just before Hailey was born, some friends of Keith’s who are NASCAR fans sent him information about a Ford Comet driver, nicknamed Hailey’s Comet back in the 1960s.

His wife’s reaction? “Resignation.”

The girls were all born a year apart — Shelby is now 4, Morgan, 3, and Hailey, 2. The couple’s eldest is a son, Ryan Douglas, now 10.

Keith has owned about 20 cars in total, and drives a BMW convertible in the summer, a Pontiac Torrent in the winter.

But with four kids, the Brampton family has big automotive needs, taken care of by their Chevy Express. The12-seater has plenty of room for car seats, strollers and there’s even space to bring friends and family along for the ride.

As for the car names, Keith has been forgiven.

“When you’ve got four kids,” he says, laughing, “you’ve got to be on speaking terms.”

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